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Republican senators downplay new Kavanaugh accusations

GOP senators cried conspiracy and attacked Julie Swetnick, who claims she was gang raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present.

Republican senators defended Kavanaugh and downplayed accusations of sexual assault against him Wednesday. CREDIT: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images
Republican senators defended Kavanaugh and downplayed accusations of sexual assault against him Wednesday. CREDIT: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Republican senators continued to downplay the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday, even as a third woman came forward, saying she was gang or “train” raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present.

In a sworn declaration shared by her lawyer Michael Avenatti on Wednesday, the woman, Julie Swetnick, said she believed she was drugged at the party and that she had previously become aware of efforts by the boys — Kavanaugh included — “to ‘spike’ the ‘punch’ at house parties…with drugs and/or grain alcohol so as to cause girls to lose their inhibitions and their ability to say ‘No.’” She did not directly implicate Kavanaugh in the rape.

Kavanaugh has been accused by two other women of sexual assault. The first, Christine Blasey Ford, spoke to The Washington Post last week and claimed Kavanaugh attempted to rape her that at a party in the early 1980s, when they were both in high school.

Ford, who also goes by “Blasey” professionally, says Kavanaugh forced himself on her, groped her over her clothes, and tried to pull off her clothing. When she tried to scream, he then covered her mouth with his hand and turned up the music in the room to muffle her cries.

“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” she said.

A second woman came forward earlier this week. The woman, Deborah Ramirez, told The New Yorker that, at a party in college, Kavanaugh thrust his penis to her face against her wishes.

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“Brett was laughing,” Ramirez told the magazine. “I can still see his face, and his hips coming forward, like when you pull up your pants.”

Senate Republicans are intent on forcing Kavanaugh’s confirmation through regardless of those claims, downplaying the allegations this week and attacking the women themselves.

In a Twitter thread Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attacked Swetnick’s attorney, Avenatti. The lawyer also represents Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who claims she had an affair with President Trump in 2006 and who was paid $130,000 by the Trump campaign ahead of the election to remain quiet about their alleged relationship.

“The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level,” Graham tweeted. “I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti.”

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Graham continued, attacking Swetnick herself, and echoing one of the president’s own talking points: asking why the women who were raped did not report their assaults and suggesting they were at fault for attending the parties.

“I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to — according to the affidavit — ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it,” the senator tweeted. “Why would any reasonable person continue to hang around people like this? Why would any person continue to put their friends and themselves in danger? Isn’t there some duty to warn others?”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) went so far as to insinuate Swetnick’s allegation was part of a larger conspiracy.

“It’s awfully odd that they’re suddenly coming up at the last second with this, even after we’ve had hearings and all kinds of other things,” he told reporters Wednesday. “You have to be very suspect of this kind of stuff. There are people out there you can’t trust.”

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Hatch also said he doesn’t think the allegations were “fair” to Kavanaugh. “I don’t think we should put up with it, to be honest with you,” he said.

Previously, Hatch said that even if Ford’s allegation of sexual assault against Kavanaugh were true, the Senate should consider who the judge is “today.”

“If that was true, I think it would be hard for senators to not consider who the judge is today,” Hatch said last week. “That’s the issue. Is this judge a really good man? And he is. And by any measure he is.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is considered a pivotal vote on Kavanaugh as one of the only pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, also cried conspiracy. On Monday, asked about a quote in Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook that essentially amounts to harassing a girl at a nearby school, Collins reference a debunked InfoWars conspiracy about Ford’s own high school yearbook.

“There are rumors — there are so many rumors — that there are issues with Christine Ford’s yearbook as well,” Collins said. “I don’t know whether that’s accurate or not accurate. I don’t know what to make of someone’s high school yearbook.”

After the third woman came forward Wednesday, Collins avoided the press entirely, reportedly using Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and John Barrasso (W-WY) as guards after emerging from a GOP lunch.

Another pivotal Kavanaugh vote, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), one of a small group of a Republicans who have called for the vote on Kavanaugh to be delayed until Ford can testify, attempted to side with both Kavanaugh and his accuser Wednesday.

“I don’t believe that Dr. Ford is part of some kind of vast conspiracy from start to finish to smear Judge Kavanaugh, as has been alleged by some on the right,” he told NBC News. But, he added, “I don’t believe that Judge Kavanaugh is some kind of serial sexual predator, as has been alleged by some on the left.”

Newly-appointed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MI), who replaced former Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MI) following Cochran’s recent resignation, used her first statement on the Senate floor Wednesday to say that sexual assault allegations should never be taken lightly, before changing course and attacking Kavanaugh’s alleged victims.

“Now, I want to be clear: my heart breaks for the victims of assault and abuse. It’s an issue that must never be taken lightly,” she said. “That is why unproven accusations are so very unjust.”

Notably, all of the women who have come forward have had their stories corroborated by other friends or family. Ford’s own story was corroborated by her therapist, who had notes about the accusation from several years ago that were shared with The Washington Post.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently scheduled to hold a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation Friday.